Z-Man on the ongoing disappearance of mainstream media comment sections:
The reason news sites are killing off comment sections is two-fold. One, it is usually where you get the bits of the news story our betters edited out in order to maintain the narrative. The “Minnesota man” in the story is identified in the comments as Jorge Gonzalez, an illegal from Guadalajara. It’s where the “suspect wearing a red shirt” is identified as a black guy named T’Q’ull Ferguson with a Facebook page full of pics of him holding a handgun and a bong. The comment sections have become a leak in the system.
The other problem, especially for opinion sites like the Spectator, is the comments have become the place that makes the writers cry. Sure, there’s lots of inane chatter, but it is also where some smart people post corrections and point out the many glaring logical errors. [Opinion writers] have fragile psyches, so seeing their mistakes highlighted for everyone to see, right under their posts, is a source of constant distress.
“…the comments have become the place that makes the writers cry…”
Amen to that. They are getting stripped bare in public and everyone gets to point and laugh at their glaring inadequacies.
They attempt to protect their incompetent and partisan writers at their peril.
I will not frequent a site that doesn’t allow reader input. That is what the internet has done for us … it’s made all conversations two ways rather than the one which preached down to we ‘deplorables’ thinking we are too dumb to question the wisdom of the poorly educated and general dumb-shits that ‘write with their heats and their consciences.
For many, the comments are the attraction.
Thank God there is a comment section here … because truer words have never been uttered.
Dalrymple’s book, “Life at the Bottom” is an excellent take on why the welfare state fails.
It reads extensively about the same facts that are ignored in the MSM these days, so as not to offend, and thank you David for posting here on this topic.
see also, “George Zimmerman trial and evidence not brought up at trial”
those photos of a child in the media? not the same child that became the man that lost the fight with Mr. Zimmerman.
“For many, the comments are the attraction.”
You’re absolutely right! I go to the comments to get the real story when they say things like the suspect has not been identified. If he is white male, he’s identified. If he has a visible ethnicity then he won’t be.
Like the shooter at Ecole Polytechnique, Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi. He changed his name to Marc Lepine. This was the impetus behind the liberal’s gun control. Violence against women and such. The guy was muslim. That’s why he hated women getting an education.
I love the readers tips thread here.
In the old days, a newspaper would have a comment section. It was called “letters to the editor”.
“In the old days, a newspaper would have a comment section. It was called “letters to the editor”.
True. And the newspaper had the luxury of time to edit or excise.
But, to keep up with the Jones of the cyber journalism world, the comment sections couldn’t be handled like that. So they were forced to open the gates, and the hounds and horses have run right over the top of them. And now they’re back to as it was in the beginning…and taking a further beating for it.
Sad how things go full circle, eh? :)))
The national post disables comments on the stories it wants to protect all the time.
‘[The] newspaper had the luxury of time to edit or excise. But, to keep up with the Jones of the cyber journalism world, the comment sections couldn’t be handled like that. So they were forced to open the gates…”
Indeed. For better or worse, the Internet has essentially sounded the death knell on the traditional gatekeepers: editors, proofreaders et al.
Now if you want to say something, you just type it out.
And then press ENTER.
“For many, the comments are the attraction.” Absolutely.
Frequently I just skim the article and then go straight to the comments. Details come out there and logic fallacies are pointed out. I don’t read stories where comments are not allowed or where I have to be on Facebook to comment.
Having said that, there are many comments that, to say the best about them, are not thoughtful.
I LIVE for the comments.
The best are downright nasty.
I like when people are that pissed off, they may do something fo a change….
The local internet news service,Castanet,has become more and more protective of it’s brand, allowing open comment on very few articles any more.
When it’s anything that could prompt criticism of any of the left’s sacred cows, no comments allowed.
I notice CBC and NP are doing the same,anything that might reflect negatively on a certain politician,whom I won’t name to protect the Prime Minister,and again it’s no comments.
CBC is the worst. I have been banned forever for using non PC words and phrases.
“Niggardly” was the final straw for them. These morons didn’t even know what it meant. Speaks volumes to their mentality.
If enough people phone their TV satellite and cable providers to have the MSM removed from their service, the problem will go away, now won’t it??
speaking of which………..
Now, now. Don’t be judgemental – you just might be wrong. Here, got a passage from a great book for you,NIMMY:
“Be thee not ashamed of thy attention to slander and false judgement, but no attention to truth and the perfection of your soul?”
Will agree to “income inequality”, which is another term from the lexicon of Ministry of Truth, in the case of “journalists” having income that is the same as that of those that sell hamburgers.
Now, that kind of “income equality” has the potential of being popular.
I tend now to avoid articles/online venues that don’t have a comments section. They’re no fun to read.
Right you are. I don’t even bother with places like wapo or politico because, although they still allow comments, they filter them through the politically correct filter of FarceBook The ONLY reason for me to go to a propaganda site like NPR was to correct their BS. Now it’s not worth bothering with at all.
The banksters need a war desperately right now. They’ve tried so hard in Syria and it just hasn’t worked. Now they’ve got crazy Trump actually saying we should stay out of the Middle East and focus on our own problems, and people are listening… What’s a self-respecting globalist financier to do?
Without the US military killing people and breaking things, there is no future growth path for them. So they send their puppets like Kasich and Romney out to talk up the fight against “evil” and threaten Russia and China, hoping to fool those dumb white ‘Murkins one more time into sending their sons off to die for God and Country and Goldman Sachs.
The IMF is in bed with the Turks, Saudis, and NATO, they are worried about a Trump audit of the Federal Reserve… and about Trump and Putin teaming up to destroy them once and for all… Trump is a vote for peace, and peace does not make money for the weapon industry. The pseudo secular media and their globalist masters profit from destabilization.
Retaining control of US foreign policy is what drives Hillary’s flying monkeys… along with the millions Goldman Sachs and the Saudis have paid her.
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